


Not-So Temporarily Love

by 17black



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-20
Updated: 2013-09-20
Packaged: 2017-12-27 03:15:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/973651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/17black/pseuds/17black
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liam's late for college, and there he stands; perfectly still and perfectly perfect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not-So Temporarily Love

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Typewriter series #34](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/27731) by Anthea "a.y". 



> This was inspired by a poem I read. This has not been proofread whatsoever, so excuse any mistakes.

Liam was running late, and Liam was never running late. His phone had died during the night; he’d forgotten to plug it, and his parents both left before him so they couldn’t wake him. He wouldn’t be that late, only about ten minutes or so, if he ran. And he did. He skipped breakfast (like he usually did) and grabbed whatever clothes he could get his hands on first. He nearly forgot his school bag, but the big mirror in the hallway reminded him. Just fifteen minutes after he woke up he was out the door and was soon running down the street. It was about a ten minute walk to the metro from the flat, but he made it in five that day. 

A little out of breath, he scanned his ticket and walked onto the platform; leaning against the wall to catch his breath properly. In those 30 seconds it took for the metro to come, Liam did a great deal of thinking. He thought about how he was going to walk into class, about the look his teacher would send him and the whispers of his classmate. He thought about what the teacher would say when he told her he didn’t have time to finish his homework (he’d never not done his homework before) and how disappointed she would be in him. He hadn’t been absent from college since he started. Liam had always taken his future seriously, and the other people in his class said enough things about him without calling him a slacker or a ditcher, as well. It was terrible, really, the pressure he felt. He needed to be the best; he needed to always do his homework, and to always get top marks on his tests and papers. He’d always been smart, and so everyone expected this of him. He never went out on weekends partying (mostly because he never got invited to parties) and he didn’t really hang out with anyone after college. He actually had no excuse as to why he hadn’t studied and why he was late. At least, not a good one. His sister’s boyfriend had broken up with her, and he’d stayed up listening to her vent about him. He knew that excuse wouldn’t hold with his teacher, so he wouldn’t tell her. He would just look down and accept that he had failed, disappointed. 

Liam’s thoughts were interrupted by the rush of people getting ready to walk onto the metro and he quietly followed suit. There were no available spots to sit, so he grabbed a pole and held onto it. He kept his gaze forward, looking at nothing. At least, until he spotted a tanned boy standing vice versa him, also holding onto a pole. He didn’t look at Liam, but instead had his gaze focused on his feet. He had raven black hair and he wore a leather jacket. Liam felt like he had the typical ‘bad boy look’, but somehow, he didn’t think he was one. His mind started to wander, like it sometimes did, to the boy’s life and what it must be like. He wondered if he was happy, sad or both all at the same time. He wondered if his accent was thick or not, if he was from London or if he was visiting someone. Had the tanned boy in front of him ever been in love? Was he currently falling in love, or maybe he was falling out of love? Liam’s mind spun with questions he would never get an answer to, and he found he was unable to stop staring, no matter how rude it was. 

Liam wondered if he grew up with both his parents, like he had, and if he had sisters or brothers, or both. If the fought a lot or if they were close. He wondered whether he was the youngest or the older. Or maybe he lived alone. Liam thought that would be incredibly sad. If he did live away from his parents, he hoped he had a roommate.   
Did he read books? He wondered what his favourite quote was, if he played guitar or another instrument. Did he go to the cinema alone? Liam did. But most of all, he wondered if the boy fell in love with words as he had (temporarily) fallen in love with him?

Then the boy looked up, and Liam’s eyes widened a little, because his eyes were the most beautiful shade of hazel. Their eyes locked and the stranger of a boy Liam had observed smiled. But his smile didn’t reach his eyes, and Liam noticed his eyes were sad. Liam smiled back, tried his hardest to make it reassuring. Tried so hard to put so much into a little smile. For some reason, he wanted to reach out and help the boy; save him from the darkness that made his eyes look so sad. But how could Liam save him when he also needed someone to save himself? How could Liam help this boy, how could he try to make his beautiful smile reach his hazel eyes when he couldn’t even take a few steps forward and say ‘hi’. 

But it didn’t matter what Liam did, for the boy got off at the next stop; two stops before Liam’s stop, and he never saw him again. But he never stopped thinking about the boy, and he never stopped wondering what his life was like. And from that day, Liam was always late. He always looked for the boy, but he never saw him again, and Liam was filled with a kind of unexplained sadness and he always looked for him; the mystery boy who had captured his attention and made his heart ache for another meeting. And Liam always regretted not getting off at the same stop. He always regretted not talking to him. He always regretted not asking people if they knew someone like that. But most importantly, he always regretted that, one day, he stopped looking.


End file.
